Weather strip for folding top

ABSTRACT

There is provided a weather strip for a folding top of an open car installed in a divided manner both sides thereof in the intermediary of a divided rails. Each divided member comprises a hollow seal portion and a seal lip portion comprised for resilient contacts with a door glass. Each divided member comprises a die mold part in a front and rear end portions. The seal lip portion of each divided member comprises a thick portion. The thick portion is formed thicker than a regular portion. The thick portion is provided with a thickness for a front end surface and a rear end surface of neighboring seal lip portions to make a resilient contact with each other even when there occurs a variation in the folding top in a closed position.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates to a weather strip installed in a divided mannerto both a left side and a right side of a folding top of an open car.

Referring to FIGS. 1 to 3, a prior art relating to the invention will bedescribed. There has conventionally been an open car comprising afolding top 1 on the roof. This folding top 1 is provided with a pluralnumber of divided rails 2 both in a left side and a right side of theopen car, as well as a weather strip 20 which is also divided into aplural number of divided members 21, and each member is installed to acorresponding divided rail 2.

In this prior art, the weather strip 20 forms a rough straight linewhere a front end surface 22 a of a die mold part 50, formed in a frontend portion and a rear end portion of each divided member 21, and a rearend surface 22 b of a neighboring die mold part 50 make a resilientcontact with each other when the folding top 1 is in a closed position.

This weather strip 20 comprises a hollow seal portion 12 which makes aresilient contact with an upper end portion of a door glass 3 to providea sealing performance. Further, there is another type of weather stripwhich comprises a seal lip portion 22 besides the hollow seal portion12, which also makes a resilient contact with the door glass 3.

The conventional weather strip 20 comprising the seal lip portion 22besides the hollow seal portion 12 is superior in the sealingperformance compared to the former one which comprises only the hollowseal portion 12 for a resilient contact with the door glass 3, since twomembers are comprised for the contact with the door glass 3.

However, according to this conventional weather strip 20, although boththe front end and the rear end portions thereof are provided with acertain degree of hardness by forming them with die mold parts 50, 50,the seal lip portion 22 is formed in a lip shape, so that the seal lipportion 22 consequently lacks hardness and is easily deformed.Therefore, when a variation in construction occurs in the folding top 1while it is in a closed position, neighboring seal lip portions 22, 22overlap with each other, so that a front end portion and a rear endportion of the neighboring seal lip portions 22, 22 cannot make aresilient contact tightly. As a result, there arises a problem that rainwater or washing water invades into an interior of an automobile throughthe unsuccessfully contacted area.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is invented in the light of such problem, andtherefore, it is an object of this invention to provide a weather stripfor a folding top of an open car which is installed to both a left and aright sides of a roof, and which comprises a hollow seal portion and aseal lip portion for contracting resilient contacts with a door glass,in which neighboring seal lip portions can make a resilient contacttightly with each other to prevent water, e.g., rain water, frominvading into an interior of an automobile, when there occurs avariation in construction in a folding top when it is in a closedposition.

Referring to FIGS. 4 and 5, a weather strip according to the inventionwill be described hereinafter.

According to a first aspect of the invention, there is provided aweather strip for a folding top of an open car installed in a dividedmanner both to a left and right sides of the folding top 1 in theintermediary of a plural number of divided rails 2. Each divided member11 comprises a hollow seal portion 12 and a seal lip portion 13 whichare comprised for contracting resilient contacts with a door glass. Eachdivided member 11 comprises a die mold part 50 in a front end portionand a rear end portion thereof. The seal lip portion 13 of each dividedmember 11 comprises a thick portion 14 in a front end portion and a rearend portion thereof. The thick portion 14 is formed thicker than aregular portion 15 of the seal lip portion 13. The thick portion 14 isprovided with a certain thickness which enables a front end surface 13 aand a rear end surface 13 b of neighboring seal lip portions 13, 13 tosuccessfully make a resilient contact tightly with each other even whenthere occurs a variation in construction in the folding top 1 when it isin a closed position.

According to a second aspect of the invention, there is provided aweather strip for a folding top of an open car introduced in the firstaspect of the invention, wherein the seal lip portion 13 comprises aninclined plane 30 in each of the front end surface 13 a and the rear endsurface 13 b in parallel for contracting a resilient contact in a widerrange.

According to a third aspect of the invention, there is provided aweather strip for a folding top of an open car introduced in the firstaspect of the invention, wherein the thick portion 14 of the seal lipportion 13 comprises a regular portion 15 and an additional portion 16.The additional portion 16 is formed in an interior side surface of theregular portion 15 of the seal lip portion 13.

According to a fourth aspect of the invention, there is provided aweather strip for a folding top of an open car introduced in the secondaspect of the invention, wherein the thick portion 14 of the seal lipportion 13 comprises a regular portion 15 and an additional portion 16.The additional portion 16 is formed in an interior side surface of theregular portion 15 of the seal lip portion 13.

According to the first aspect of the invention, the seal lip portion 13of each divided member 11 comprises the thick portion 14 in the frontend and the rear end portions, and each of which is formed thicker thanthe regular portion 15 of the seal lip portion 13. Further, the thickportion 14 is provided with a certain thickness which enables a frontend surface 13 a and a rear end surface 13 b of neighboring seal lipportions 13, 13 to make a resilient contact tightly with each other evenwhen there occurs a variation in construction in the folding top 1 whenit is in a closed position. Therefore, the weather strip 10 can surelyprevent water, e.g., rain water, from invading into an interior of anautomobile.

That is, when there occurs a variation in the folding top 1 when it isin a closed position, the seal lip portion 13 of each divided member 11comprises the thick portion 14 in both the front end and the rear endportions thereof, so that neighboring seal lip portions 13, 13 canassuredly make a resilient contact with each other without overlapping.Therefore, the weather strip 10 is able to provide an excellent sealingperformance in the contacting area of the seal lip portions 13, 13, likea contacting area of the hollow seal portions 12, 12, and thus it canassuredly prevent an invasion of water.

According to the second aspect of the invention, the contacting area ofthe neighboring seal lip portions 13, 13 is able to provide an excellentsealing performance equivalent to the first aspect of the invention.

Further, the inclined plane 30 is provided in the front end surface 13 aand the rear end surface 13 b of the seal lip portion 13 in order tomake a resilient contact in a wider range compared to providing aperpendicular surface, so that there can be provided a wider contactingarea between them, and that the sealing performance of the contactingarea can be further improved.

According to the third and fourth aspects of the invention, thecontacting area between the front end surface 13 a and the rear endsurface 13 b of the seal lip portion 13 can provide an excellent sealingperformance similar to the first and second aspects of the invention.

Further, the thick portion 14 of the seal lip portion 13 is formed byproviding the additional portion 16 in the interior side of the regularportion 15, so that the additional portion 16 is not visualized from anoutside. Therefore, an external appearance of the seal lip portion 16can be provided with a smooth surface without forming an unevenness,providing an excellent external appearance.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a side elevation view showing an open car comprising a weatherstrip for a folding top;

FIG. 2 is a sectional view along line I-I in FIG. 1 showing a weatherstrip according to a prior art;

FIG. 3 is a sectional view along line II-II in FIG. 1 showing a weatherstrip according to a prior art;

FIG. 4 is a sectional view along line I-I in FIG. 1 showing a weatherstrip according to the invention;

and, FIG. 5 is a sectional view along line II-II in FIG. 1 showing aweather strip according to the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

A weather strip for a folding top of an open car according to apreferred embodiment of the invention is illustrated in FIGS. 1, 4 and5. This weather strip 10 is installed in a divided manner both to a leftand a right sides of a folding top 1 of an open car, forming dividedmembers 11, in the intermediary of a plural number of rails 2 a, 2 b, 2c forming a rail 2, which are also structured in a divided manner. Eachdivided member 11 of the weather strip 10 comprises a hollow sealportion 12 and a seal lip portion 13 as well as a die mold part 50 whichis comprised in a front end and rear end portion thereof. The die moldpart 50 is continuously connected to a extrusion mold part 40.

The rail 2 is divided into a front rail 2 a, a center rail 2 b and arear rail 2 c. A first divided member 11 a of the weather strip 10 isinstalled to the front rail 2 a, while a second divided member 11 b isinstalled to the center rail 2 b, and a third divided member 11 c isinstalled to the rear rail 2 c, respectively.

Each the rail 2 and the weather strip 10 comprising the divided members11 forms a rough straight line without overlapping a front end and arear end portions of each member when the folding top 1 is in a closedposition. Further, when the folding top 1 is in an open position, thefolding top 1 is stored in a back side of the open car in a foldedmanner.

According to the weather strip 10 in the preferred embodiment of theinvention, the seal lip portion 13 of each divided member 11 is providedwith a thick portion 14 in both a front end and a rear end portionsthereof, which is structured thicker than a regular portion 15. Athickness of the thick portion 14 is formed such that a front endsurface 13 a and a rear end surface 13 b of neighboring seal lipportions 13, 13 can safely make a resilient contact tightly even whenthere occurs a variation in construction in the fold top 1 when the foldtop 1 is in a closed position. It should be noted that a range of thevariation in construction found in the folding top 1 can be calculatedin advance.

Therefore, at a time the variation in construction occurs in the foldtop 1 when the folding top 1 is in a closed position, the front endsurface 13 a and the rear end surface 13 b of neighboring seal lipportions 13, 13 can assuredly make a resilient contact and provide asufficient sealing performance, though the contacting position of thesurfaces 13 a, 13 b may slightly move from its proper position. As aresult, water such as rain can be prevented from invading into aninterior of the open car through the contacting area of the neighboringseal lip portions 13,13.

Further, according to this embodiment, there is formed an inclined plane30 in the front end surface 13 a and the rear end surface 13 b of theseal lip 13 in parallel in order to successfully contact the surfaces 13a, 13 b in a wider range. Therefore, a contacting area of the front endsurface 13 a and the rear end surface 13 b can be widened, and thus aninvasion of the water is further prevented.

Moreover, according to this embodiment, the thick portion 14 of the seallip portion 13 is formed by providing an additional portion 16 in aninterior side surface of a regular portion 15 of the seal lip portion13. With such structure, an external surface of the seal lip portion 13forms a smooth surface as is before, so that the weather strip 10 isimproved in the sealing performance without impairing an appearancethereof.

In this preferred embodiment, a front end surface 13 a of the seal lipportion 13 of the divided member 11 is resiliently contacted with a rearend surface 13 b of a roof weather strip 5 installed to a front roof 4in order to provide a good sealing performance in that contacting areaas well.

It should be noted that although the weather strip 10 in this preferredembodiment is composed of three divided members 11 a, 11 b, 11 c, theinvention is not limited to such construction, and it can be comprisedof two or less, or four or more of divided members.

The disclosure of Japanese Patent Application No. 2004-066533 field Mar.10, 2004 including specification, claims, and drawings, is incorporatedherein by reference.

1. A weather strip for a folding top of an open car installed in adivided manner both to a left and right sides of said folding top in theintermediary of a plural number of divided rails, wherein, each dividedmember comprises a hollow seal portion and a seal lip portion formed forcontracting resilient contacts with a door glass; each divided membercomprises a die mold part in a front end portion and a rear end portionthereof; said seal lip portion of each divided member comprises a thickportion in a front end portion and a rear end portion thereof; saidthick portion is formed thicker than a regular portion of said seal lipportion; and said thick portion is provided with a thickness of enablinga front end surface and a rear end surface of neighboring seal lipportions to make a tight resilient contact with each other even whenthere occurs a variation in construction in said folding top in a closedposition.
 2. A weather strip for a folding top of an open car claimed inclaim 1, wherein said seal lip portion comprises an inclined plane ineach of said front end surface and said rear end surface in parallel forcontracting a resilient contact in a wider range.
 3. A weather strip fora folding top of an open car claimed in claim 1, wherein said thickportion of said seal lip portion comprises a regular portion and anadditional portion; and said additional portion is formed in an interiorside surface of said regular portion of said seal lip portion.
 4. Aweather strip for a folding top of an open car claimed in claim 2,wherein said thick portion of said seal lip portion comprises a regularportion and an additional portion; and said additional portion is formedin an interior side surface of said regular portion of said seal lipportion.